The Ringer floats A.J. Green's name in a trade idea with the Saints

The Cincinnati Bengals aren’t going to let A.J. Green slip away — but until an extension gets done, his name won’t stop appearing in hypothetical ideas during the offseason.

The latest comes from The Ringer, where Robert Mays and Kevin Clark drummed up a trade idea on The Ringer NFL Show where the Bengals ship Green to the New Orleans Saints.

Clark admitted the chatter on Green though has been speculation: “A.J. Green has been sort of – there hasn’t been a full-fledged ‘A.J. Green is on the (trade) block rumor’ but any time you hear ‘who could be next,’ especially after the Odell Beckham trade and the Antonio Brown trade, it was ‘who could be next,’ you sort of hear A.J. Green’s name floating around there. I think that would be amazing.”

The conversation then shifted to a Bengals rebuild and why that might justify it. And indeed, it would cost a massive haul to pry away Green from the Bengals, which they could then flip into draft picks meant to fuel a rebuild.

The entire weight of a Green trade idea rests on the idea the Bengals are rebuilding and don’t want to spend. But they don’t view it that way. They had shots at first-round quarterbacks. They’ve instead made win-now moves and have plenty of cap space to wrap up Green on another deal.

The reality is Green is only going on 31 years old. They didn’t have any issue throwing a big extension at 31-year-old Geno Atkins last year, and they aren’t going to trade a top-10 player at his position because of age or money – especially not if he’s tasked with grooming a rookie quarterback.

Maybe the biggest conflict with keeping Green in Cincinnati is the fact Tyler Boyd also needs an extension coming out of a breakout year and Green has missed a big chunk of games in two of his last three seasons.

Try to keep in mind Green idolizes Larry Fitzgerald, who never left Arizona. He’s echoed Fitzgerald as recently as late last year when it comes to sticking with the Bengals. Unless the mood dramatically changes in the front office for some random reason, the fact outsiders view the Bengals as a rebuilder and the fact other big-name receivers have moved lately doesn’t have any impact on Green’s future with the team.